This invention relates to methods and apparatus for rapid prototyping and manufacturing (“RP&M”) to produce three-dimensional objects, and more particularly to improving the productivity and efficiency of RP&M systems.
RP&M is the name given to a field of technologies that can be used to form three-dimensional objects or solid images. In general, RP&M techniques build three-dimensional objects, layer-by-layer, from a building medium using data representing successive cross-sections of the object to be formed. Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing systems, often referred to as CAD/CAM systems, typically provide the object representation to an RP&M system. The three primary modes of RP&M include stereolithography, laser sintering, and ink jet printing of solid images.
Laser sintering builds solid images from thin layers of heat-fusible powders, including ceramics, polymers, and polymer-coated metals to which sufficient energy is imparted to solidify the layers. Ink jet printing builds solid images from powders that are solidified when combined with a binder. Stereolithography, to which the subject matter herein is primarily addressed, builds solid images from thin layers of polymerizable liquid, commonly referred to as resin.
Stereolithography and laser sintering systems typically supply the energy for creating and building up the thin cross-sections of three-dimensional objects through modulation and precise directional control of lasers. The laser applies energy to a targeted area of the layer of powder or liquid building medium. The thin targeted layer is called the working surface of the building medium. Conventional RP&M laser systems position the laser beam using a scanning system having galvanometer-driven mirrors that are directed by a control computer. The mirrors deflect a laser beam in response to a CAD/CAM program that has been tessellated into the STL format and sliced into cross-sectional data files that are merged into a build file.
In stereolithography, three-dimensional objects result from successive solidification of a plurality of thin layers of a polymerizable liquid, one on top of another, until all of the thin layers join together to form the three-dimensional object. Each layer represents a thin cross-section of the desired three-dimensional object. Polymerizable liquids are generally referred to as “resins,” and solidified layers of resin are said to be cured. Practical building media typically include resins that cure sufficiently fast, usually with ultraviolet light. An ultraviolet laser generates a small and intense spot of light that is moved across the liquid surface with a galvanometer mirror in an x-y scanner in a predetermined pattern. The scanner is driven by computer generated vectors or the like. This technique rapidly produces precise complex patterns.
A typical stereolithography system includes a laser scanner, a vat for containing the resin, an object support platform, which is capable of being raised and lowered in the vat, and a controlling computer. The computer controls the system automatically to make a plastic part, forming one thin cross-section of cured resin at a time on the object support platform and building the desired three-dimensional object up layer-by-layer. The object support platform supports the cured layers and rests beneath the surface of the liquid resin the distance of one layer thickness to define a working surface. The laser cures selected portions of liquid resin at the working surface to cure the next layer. The computer controls the system to recoat the surface of the cured resin with fresh resin and repeats the steps thousands of times until completing the desired object. The object or multiple objects being built and the completed sequence of steps is sometimes referred to as a “build.” An operator removes the build from the vat of resin for cleaning and further curing as needed. The liquid resin remaining in the vat remains usable so long as it is not too contaminated with suspended bits of cured resin.
One method of recoating the cured resin layers with fresh resin requires “deep dipping” the platform in the liquid resin. The platform vertically drops below the surface of the bath of resin a distance greater than the desired layer thickness to coat the cured layers with fresh liquid resin. The system raises the platform to one layer thickness beneath the resin surface. Excess liquid resin runs off to level the resin by gravity to a single layer thickness. Thereafter, the laser applies energy to the working surface.
The waiting period for the thin layer to level varies depending on several factors, including the viscosity of the polymerizable liquid, the layer thickness, part geometry, cross-section, and the like. Some recent resins level more quickly than prior resins. Leveling can be assisted by the use of a doctor blade or vacuum assisted doctor blade, sometimes referred to as a Zephyr blade, to sweep across the surface of the resin, applying fresh resin and removing the excess much more quickly than by gravity settling and leveling the working resin surface in the vat containing the resin. The blade is said to recoat the solidified layers and is often referred to as a “recoater.”
Various improvements have been proposed to increase the efficiency with which RP&M techniques are accomplished, including improvements to laser systems for more efficient use of the laser and for more precise imaging, improvements to building media, reduction of curing time, control of resin level in the vat, and the like. It would be desirable to make additional improvements that enable stereolithography systems to produce more objects in less time, and to do so with greater precision and less human intervention.